The day before he suddenly passed away, Kyle Busch messaged Dale Earnhardt Jr. to arrange a CARS Tour race in a JR Motorsports Late Model car. Busch requested to run Dale Jr.’s signature No. 8, which Earnhardt gladly approved for the upcoming event.

"The day before he passed away, getting together this Thursday to bring his seat for his Late Model over to my shop because we had agreed that he was going to race our car in the CARS Tour, where he's going to race my Late Model in the CARS Tour," Dale Jr. said in the recent Dale Jr Download podcast.

"I was like, 'Hey man, he's texting me, and he's like, 'What scheme we going to run?'"

The No. 8 is legendary in NASCAR. Much like Dale Earnhardt Sr. made the No. 3 famous, the No. 8 became a symbol of Junior's own racing legacy.

"And I was like, 'You can run any scheme you want.' I was like, 'What number do you want to run?' I was like, 'You got I got a you know, we can run 51, whatever you want to run.' And he goes, I want to run the, he said it literally, the Dale Jr. 8. And I was like, 'You got it.' That's what's on it right now. We'll run the Dale Jr. 8, and he gave me a head exploding emoji," Dale Jr. further added.

As Busch asked for it, Dale Jr agreed, and had the former run it, that could have been a jaw-dropping collaboration where NASCAR's winningest driver across the three National Series takes the No. 8 car of one of the best and famed drivers.

However, long before it materialized, Kyle Busch suddenly passed away on Thursday, May 21. At the time of his passing, he was 41 years old and left behind his wife, Samantha Busch, and two kids, Brexton and Lennix.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared a tribute to Kyle Busch

Following the demise of Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took to his official X account to share an emotional tribute. In the post, he mentioned how he never really had a good rapport with the late driver. However, they were on their way to sort out the differences and start working together.

"Kyle was one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. No one can deny that. But he was also a father, a husband, brother, son, and a friend to many. My heart is broken for the Busch family. I will never be able to make sense of this loss, but I am thankful that we had found a way to become friends," Dale Jr. wrote.

Days before Kyle Busch passed away, he was suffering from a cold. However, it soon turned into severe pneumonia and rapidly progressed into sepsis. He was taken to the hospital in Charlotte immediately, but did not survive.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Koushik Biswas